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Thermoelectric properties of Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystals grown by directional solidification

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Abstract

Thermoelectric devices require p-type and n-type semiconductors with similar chemical, mechanical and thermoelectric properties to achieve maximum efficiency. To match with n-type In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystals for the fabrication of thermoelectric device, zinc (Zn) element was doped with In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystal intentionally to change its conductivity from n-type to p-type and its thermoelectric properties were studied. The Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystals grown by directional solidification were free from micro-cracks and their composition was distributed homogeneously. The carrier concentration was increased upon doping with Zn element. The resistivity of Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb increased with increasing temperature that showed degenerate semiconducting characteristics resulted from heavy doping. The Peierls distortion resulting from Sb–Sb interaction was observed in Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystals. The higher electron contribution and lower phonon contribution to total thermal conductivity were obtained in Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb than undoped crystals. The maximum ZT of 0.24 at 573 K was achieved by Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb with dopant concentration 1 × 1020 atoms/cm3. The ZT achieved is the highest among other reported values of p-type III–V semiconductors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Shizuoka University, Ibaraki University and Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan, for the support in material preparation and analyses. We also thank for the financial support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No JP19H02491) and CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, India (Project Grant OLP-114).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Materials Technology Department, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, India

    Nirmal Kumar Velu

  2. Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan

    Yasuhiro Hayakawa

  3. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University, Hitachi, Japan

    Haruhiko Udono

  4. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Tokyo, Japan

    Yuko Inatomi

  5. School of Physical Sciences, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Sagamihara, Japan

    Yuko Inatomi

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Contributions

The conception was done by N.K.V. The experiment, design and measurements were carried out by N.K.V, Y.H, H.U and Y.I. The results were analyzed and the manuscript draft was prepared by N.KV. Y.H., H.U and Y.I validated and suggested corrections in the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nirmal Kumar Velu.

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Velu, N.K., Hayakawa, Y., Udono, H. et al. Thermoelectric properties of Zn-doped In0.95Ga0.05Sb crystals grown by directional solidification. J Mater Sci 58, 7995–8004 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08546-9

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